Kathryn belts out a jazz ballad (at another event) while Hawkins plays bass

By Marcia E. Gawecki

For one fun-filled evening, audience members were treated to a hefty dose of jazz and then classical music. Monday, May 10, was the senior recitals for Kathryn, a jazz vocalist, and Rich, a classical pianist, in Stephens Recital Hall at the Idyllwild Arts Academy.

Kathryn’s roster of 10 songs included jazz standards, classical rock and some blues.

Dressed in a slinky over-the-shoulder short, black dress and a red flower in her hair, Kathryn looked like the ultimate showman. But looks were disceiving.

“She was really nervous before the recital,” said Marshall Hawkins, head of the Jazz Department at Idyllwild Arts. “But I wouldn’t hear none of it. I knew she was going to be fine.”

Kathryn’s first song was “Stepping Out” by Irving Berlin. She sang a duet with Everett, a classical vocals major.  They had fun and chemistry onstage, and the loud applause afterwards gave Schmidt the confidence that kept building until her last song.

For her next tune, “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye” by Cole Porter , Kathryn was by herself onstage. Just a guitar and microphone.

“I like doing acustical work,” Kathryn had said earlier in the day. “Sometimes, it’s just nice being out there by yourself.”

When she started “Use Somebody,” a popular rock song by Kings of Leon, Won Bin, shouted out, “I love this song!”

Kathryn played it slower than the popular version, but with just her guitar, and for the first time, we understood all of the lyrics.

By her fourth song, “Maybe,” Kathryn brought on her fellow jazz mates, including Hallie on vocals and piano; Mint on electric guitar; Alejandro on bass guitar and Nate on drums.

“‘Private Lawns,’ by independent artists A & J Stone, is one of my favorites,” Kathryn said as an introduction. And by the time she was done, it was one of ours too. She introduced two musical soloists, Jacob on flute and Caleb on trumpet.

“I just blew in from Chicago, where they have private lawns and public parks,” were the jazzy lyrics.

Grant Park, one of Chicago’s more famous public parks, features a free, four-day jazz concert each Labor Day Weekend. Residents pile in from the neighborhoods and suburbs all dying to hear the jazz greats. Some famous performers include Miles Davis, Benny Carter, Ella Fitzgerald, Anthony Broxton, Lionel Hampton,  Betty Carter and Jimmy Dawkins, among others.

For her next song, Kathryn switched to rock n’ roll with the Rolling Stones’ classic, “Wild Horses.” You have to give her credit for taking on such a popular song for the Baby Boomer generation. At first when I heard the lyrics, all I could hear was Mick Jagger’s low voice, and Keith Richards’ electric guitar. But then I settled in and accepted Schmidt’s soprano voice and standard guitar.

For the next few songs, Kathryn went out of sequence from the playbill. For “Oreo Cookie Blues,” she sang a duet with Mint and her electric guitar. It was a fun, little song that made the favorite cream-filled sandwich cookie a bit sexy.

“I’ve got the chocolate cream-filled cookie blues,” Kathryn wailed. “It gets me higher than I get on booze. I couldn’t quit if I wanted to!”

(from L) Jacob on sax and Caleb on trumpet got some solo time at Kathryn's gig

The next tune, “Lift Me Up,” Kathryn said it was a Christine Aguilera song that she sang at a “Hope for Haiti” benefit. She played it with Hallie, and it was a slow, love ballad. “Just get me through the night,” she pleaded to an unseen lover.

For “Orange Colored Sky,” Kathryn brought on the entire jazz band, including Mint on electric guitar; Alejandro on bass; Nate on drums; Jacob on alto sax; Anthony on tenor sax, Hallie on piano and Caleb on trumpet.

With that many jazzmen on stage, one would think that they’d easily drown Schmidt out, but she held her own.

“I talked to them (the musicians) about it,” Hawkins said after the show. “You never want to drown out your singer.”

For her final number, Schmidt sang Aretha Franklin’s anthem, “Respect,” and brought the house down. She added backup vocalists Amenta and Allison, who “wooped” and danced and made everything fun. The interesting part is that Amenta is a theater major and Allison is a visual artist. Who knew that they could sing?

“It wasn’t happening for me at rehearsal,” Anthony confessed later. “But when Amenta and Allison showed up during the show, they really brought a lot of energy that we played into.”

By this time, Kathryn was in her groove. She grabbed the microphone from the stand and started walking around, and “talked” to the drummer Nate with her “doo, doo, doo’s.” She looked like the ultimate jazz showman.

When the Aretha anthem was over, everyone was on their feet, clapping and cheering. And Kathryn walked away with an armload of five bouquets.

For Rich’s review, look to the separate article, “Classical Piano Recital.”

Copyright 2010 Idyllwild Me. All rights reserved.

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leva and Justin (shown at another performance) will be showcasing their own work

Student Dance Choreography is happening again this Thursday through Saturday, May 12-14, at the Dance Studio on the Idyllwild Arts campus.

It’s a forum for the junior and senior dance majors to showcase their talents for three to 10 minutes onstage.

“Most of the pieces are modern, but there’s some ballet pieces as well,” said leva, a senior dance major. “Cyndi tried to choreogrpah a Chinese piece, but it didn’t work out, so she made it more modern.”

For weeks, the students have been getting ready by choreographing, practicing with their fellow dancers, making costumes and selecting their music.

“Each of the juniors and seniors have to choreograph their own piece, then they also have to dance in two or three other pieces,” leva explained. “It’s really fun to create one and dance in others.”

Cyndi Huang was interested in choreographing a Chinese piece

Her piece was modern, she said, and centered on dancing around three black boxes.

Anna, another senior dance major, said that her piece was modern too. Neither wanted to give too many details away before the performance.

“You’ll just have to come,” Anna said.

Everyone helps with the performances, even non-dancers. Jacobl, a junior theater major with a focus on costuming, is helping out with Ariann’s costumes.

“I saw her struggling with shedding the costumes, and I offered to help,” he said. “She was grateful because she needed to get back to the choreography.”

Dakota and Justin (shown at another event) will be choreographing modern pieces

Jacob simply cut the short dresses in strips and pulled and worked with the material. “It’s all about the material. The cuts needed to move freely when the girls were dancing,” he said.

The juniors and seniors that will be showcasing their choreography include: Adrianna, Sofia, Dakota, Cyndi, Ellen, Ariann, leva, Justin, Tramayne, Anna, DJ, Kayla, Ella and Geneva.

The underclassmen who will be performing include: Marianna, Gina, Giovanna, Macarena, Kira, Allie, Paulina and Hailey.

All shows are open to the public and start at 7:30 p.m. in the Dance Studio on the Idyllwild Arts campus. For more information, visit www.idyllwildarts.org or call (951) 659-2171.

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Bella Oh's oversized phone sculpture is set to contact aliens

From oversized phones that hope to contact aliens to a tea cup that only “Alice in Wonderland” could drink from, it was all about oversized art sculptures at the  Idyllwild Arts “Visual Art III” opening on Friday night, May 7, at the Parks Exhibition Center. The show continues through Friday, May 14.

The five seniors participating in the show are  Jasmine Marin, Yoo Bin Cha, Sana Liu, Bella Oh and Brent Terry.

Walking down to the Parks Exhibition Center from campus, the first thing you’d see is a large, lightweight sculpture of a phone. Not a cell phone, mind you, but just the handset of an old fashioned phone, made up of wood, wire and cheese cloth. This phone was mounted on the roof.

“Did you see the phone on top of the roof?” asked Rob Rutherford, head of the Visual Art Department at Idyllwild Arts.

“Bella (Oh) wanted to stay even after she mounted it up there,” Rutherford said. “She wanted to see if it would contact any aliens.”

Once you see Bella Oh’s series of alien drawings, everything fits together. Like an architect’s blueprint, Oh drew the phone sculpture to scale, including the mounting platform and attachments.

She printed her alien drawings on velum, because you cannot print large-scale drawings on paper, Rutherford explained. Architects used to, but nobody prints large scale anymore.

Oh also drew a rendering of a crop circle from the air, outlining all of the parts. Crop circles are large-scale circles created by flattening of crops, such as wheat, barley and corn. Skeptics dispute it, while alien enthusiasts believe they could be caused by freak meteorological phenomena or messages from extraterrestrials.

In another large drawing, Oh drew an alien, that looks like the ones portrayed in the movies, with an oversized head and eyes, and a slight body with elongated arms.

“Do you believe in aliens?” someone asked her the next day. She was surprised at the question at first, but “Yes,” was all she said.

Sana Liu (R) and friend pose in front of her oversized sugarplum tea cup

In the same show, there was another larger-than-life sculpture: a sugarplum and marshmallow tea cup hanging from the ceiling. It was created by Sana Liu, who said that it was part of her “Home Sweet Home” series.

“I was watching her create that teacup,” said Haley Kuhlmann, another visual arts student. “And she wasn’t using any glue at all. She just pushed the gumdrops and marshmallows through the wire.”

Half white miniature marshmallows, and half multicolored gum drops made up the tea cup’s design.

Everyone around it marveled at his size, and the amount of time it took to create it, not to mention the bags and bags of marshmallows and gumdrops.

Oversized modern art has been done by many artists over the years, including Cristo, who was best known for “wrapping” things, such as cars, buildings and canyons. However, Cristo also created 3,100 oversized umbrellas that he mounted on hillsides in California and Japan. These yellow and blue umbrellas measured 19 feet, eight inches high and measured 26 feet, 5 inches wide. Without the base, each weighed about 450 pounds.

During their 10-year exhibition, Cristo had some trouble with the umbrellas detaching in the wind, but Oh wasn’t taking any chances with her phone and Idyllwild’s tulmultous weather. On Sunday, May 9, Oh heard there was a 20 percent chance of snow, and took the phone down from the roof.

“It’s made of wood, wire and cheesecloth,” she said. “But it’s not that strong.”

Hopefully, she moved it inside the Parks Exhibition Center for everyone to enjoy.

Although not oversized, Brent Terry’s series of black-and-white photographs were an interesting character study.

“I annoyed a lot of people,” Terry said of his photography set-up in the campus bookstore. Like the opening of an industrial meat locker, Terry attached long plastic strips over the front door at the bookstore. Generally, the strips are used to keep the bugs out, and the cool air in.

“The cool part,” Terry said, “was that the bookstore kept his whole project  a secret.”

When students would walk into the bookstore, they had to pass through the strips, he said.

“It was disorienting and annoying to most of them,” Terry said, whose photographs portrayed mostly silhouettes of students with bowed heads, arms flayling. In one of Dakota Bailey, you can only see her dance tutu jutting forth.

Terry said that the idea came from a photography experiment that he did in New York. He had put the same plastic “meat locker” strips over a door in a flea market.

“But this time, I put myself in front of them,” Terry said.

Many of the students didn’t know their photographs were part of his senior art show until the opening Friday.

“Hey, that’s me!” several students said to Terry. It didn’t matter that they didn’t look their best, were obviously annoyed or distressed by the plastic barriers.

An observer looks at the watercolor and ink art labels of Jasmine Marin's ginger beer bottles

For those who came to the show late, they didn’t get to sample Jasmine Marin’s homemade ginger beer. She had made 28 bottles for the show, and they were gone quickly.

Haley Kuhlmann was one of the lucky ones. “It had a strong ginger taste, with a hint of lemon,” she explained.

“But it didn’t taste like gingerale, but more like a beer,” she said.

Jade Huggins, another visual art student, said that she tried a sample earlier in the week, and it was sweet.

Marin made the ginger beer for her senior show because she questioned the idea of art always having to be “pretty.”

“I want to make art that can be enjoyed by me and my friends,” she said.

There was a pretty element to the ginger beer installation, however. The brown bottles that were suspended on wires from the ceiling had small watercolor and ink drawings on them, along with French words.

On one of the bottles, there were portraits of women without faces. On another, there was a nude woman’s torso. Still another depicted a large, “Bumpstead-style” sandwich, with a tongue hanging over the side. Marin admitted to making great sandwiches.

“Something tells me that she’s also a good cook,” said one student. “Making ginger beer is an advanced cooking technique. I couldn’t do it.”

The last piece, or pieces, in the show were created by Yoo Bin Cha. They were Asian-style plates with feet on them. These plates are similar to sushi plates at a Japanese restaurant. However, instead of the standard black or white, Cha’s ceramic plates were painted in colorful greens, pinks and blues. Some had flower decorations on them.

It was hard to count how many plates that Cha created, but there were a lot. Some were even used to display the food at the reception outside. What type of food they had on them was not known, because, like the ginger beer, if you arrived after 6 p.m., the food is gone.

So Cha showed that her ceramic plates were not only colorful, but functional as well.

The “Visual Art III” show continues on display until Friday, May 14 at the Parks Exhibition Center. For more information, contact Morgan Satterfield at (951) 659-2171, ext. 2251.

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Vijay Iyer talks with students after his "Math & Music" lecture at Idyllwild Arts

By Marcia E. Gawecki

Internationally-acclaimed jazz pianist and composer Vijay Iyer will play with the Idyllwild Arts student orchestra at the REDCAT Theater at Disney Hall on Mother’s Day this Sunday, May 9 at 5 p.m. Tickets are $25, and proceeds go to Idyllwild Arts.

Iyer, who is an old college friend of Peter Askim, the music director and composer-in-residence at Idyllwild Arts, performed one of his compositions at the concert last night at the IAF Theater.

His piece, entitled “Interventions for Improvised Piano, Electronics & Orchestra,” was met with some skepticism at first.

Connor Merritt was skeptical of Vijay Iyer's composition at first

“It’s really hard to play,” said Conner, a trombone player. “It’s not the kind of music that we’re used to.”

During an interview on You Tube, Iyer discussed that same concern with his “Interventions” piece.

“Classical performers are trained in interpreting musical notes on a page,” Iyer said. “They have lots of ideas on how to do that, and it’s what they’re good at. With this piece, I hope to draw from that expertise.”

But this piece called for certain instruments to improvise, something that jazz musicians are used to, but not classical musicians who play in an orchestra.

To be ready for their performances, each of the sections had extra rehearsals–in addition to their regular orchestra rehearsals. The list was posted on the cafeteria door, and other students knew they wouldn’t be seeing much of the music students during “orchestra week.”

Well, their hard work paid off. Last night’s concert was a success, according to James Duval, a classical flute player and the former head of the Music Department at Idyllwild Arts.

At 10:30 p.m. Saturday night, the concert was over, and Duval was overseeing several students as they loaded up the truck with all of the instruments, including the bass drum. The truck is set to head down the hill Sunday at 9:30 a.m. in plenty of time for the 5 p.m. show at the REDCAT.

“There were a lot of people there tonight,” Duval said. “And they really liked Vijay Iyer’s piece.”

Charles Schlacks, Jr., a former Russian History professor at Berkeley, was among those who attended Saturday’s performance on campus. He has amassed a classical record collection in excess of 40,000, but continues to enjoy live performances.

“The student orchestra always does a nice job,” Schlacks said. “The new music was different than what I’m used to, but it was very nice.”

In another interview on You Tube, Iyer said that he’s used to comments like that about his music. As background, Iyer earned a bachelors degree in math and physics at Yale. Although he studied jazz piano in high school, it wasn’t until after he graduated from college that he became a full-time performer and composer.

“In America, they don’t always support certain arts,” he told an Indian reporter shown on You Tube. “Even if music not commercially popular, it gets out there somehow because it needs to. In the end, music is the healing force, the force of change.”

Iyer mentioned that other musicians, even popular ones, do improvisations too.

“I saw a video of the guy from the Black Eyed Peas who took a speech by (President Barak) Obama and turned it into a piece of music,” he said. “It was his concession speech in New Hampshire. And it had all the rhythms and candances associated with music.”

Iyer taught a "Music & Math" class at Idyllwild Arts Friday

Not surprisingly, much of Iyer’s compositions are based on math principles. In fact, he gave a lecture on “Math and Music” to about 75 Idyllwild Arts students and faculty on Friday, May 7. There, he explained how math is integrated into music.

“Usually, I don’t like music to be too hard, contrary to what you might believe,” Iyer said, amongst laughter from the music students.

He outlined rhythm phrases that crossed over the beat in rhythmic progression, and gave the “A, B, A, B, A” pattern variables.

“As you can see, it is taken on a linear shape,” Iyer said. ‘But this is not music.”

He said that the challenge of being a composer today is to remain fresh, and always learning something new.

“But it helps me to start with something artificial,” Iyer said. “That way, you’re not always starting from the same place each time.”

Then he played some of his improvisations from an amplifier attached to his laptop.

However, Iyer wasn’t the only one with an orchestra piece that was performed Saturday night. Askim, too, featured one of his pieces, a trombone concerto.

“His piece was hard to play too,” said Connor.

Ieseul Yoen, shown at her recital, is looking forward to playing at RedCat Sunday

Senior pianists Ieseul, Linda and Daphne “Kitty,” each got to play different pieces with the orchestra.

Ieseul said that she’s looking forward to playing at the REDCAT.

“Any chance we get to go down the hill and perform before a live audience, is a good thing,” she said.

Another good thing for the Idyllwild Arts student orchestra also happened this weekend.

“Our recording of Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony came out Friday, May 7 (Tchaikovsky’s birthday),” Askim said. “It is a CD/DVD set, and I think it will be good.”

To hear that recording, visit iTunes at www.itunes.com.

For tickets and more information about the RedCat performance on Sunday, May 9, at 5 p.m., visit www.redcat.org, or call (213) 237-2800. Tickets are $25 for the general public and $10 for students with I.D.

Copyright 2010 Idyllwild Me. All rights reserved.

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Jazz pianist and composer Vijay Iyer will be performing with the Idyllwild Arts student orchestra tonight, Saturday, May 8, at the IAF Theater in the Bowman Center, and then at the REDCAT Theater at Disney Hall in LA on Sunday.

Iyer and the orchestra will be performing “Interventions,” his first orchestra piece. Mostly, Iyer plays jazz improvisations with his trio, but he came to Idyllwild this week as a favor to Peter Askim, music director and composer-in-residence at Idyllwild Arts.

“We played jazz together in college,” Askim said.

A day before this concert, however, Iyer is not resting. He gave an hour-long lecture at Idyllwild Arts on math and music. He has math and physics degrees from Yale, but after graduating, he started jamming on piano at the Bird Kage in Oakland. He now performs worldwide with his band, the Vijay Iyer trio, and has won critical acclaim.

At the lecture held in the Fireside Room before about 75 music students and faculty, Iyer mixed his two loves, mathmatics with sounds from an amplifier hooked up to his laptop.

Although he described what he was saying as “nothing more than 7th grade math, he lost me at the end. However, most of the students, trained in music and notes, were following along on his whiteboard presentation, and giving him the right answers.

He described himself as coming from Indian descent, and said his music was earlier influenced by Indian classical and religious music. He looked more like a mathematician with his slight build, round glasses and cropped hair. But his large hands gave him away as also being a musician.

As a preview to his math and music lecture, Iyer sent Askim several articles from newspapers in which he describes how math has influenced architecture and music from ancient buildings to Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.”

More to come!

Jasmine Marin, a visual arts student at Idyllwild Arts, was making batches of ginger beer last weekend.

“This batch didn’t turn out so well,” she said, disgusted. “I’ll have to try again this afternoon.”

Normally, the school probably wouldn’t allow a student, even a senior in good standing, to make beer in her room. (Actually, it was in her dorm parent’s room.) However, this project was approved by Rob Rutherford, head of the Visual Arts Department.

Marin plans on distributing her homemade ginger beer at “Visual Art III,” the next student art show held this Friday, May 7, at 6:00 p.m. at the Parks Exhibition Center.

The four other visual artists in the show, including Yoo Bin Cha, Sana Liu, Bella Oh, and Brent Terry, are planning their art around a food theme too.

“Brent Terry is going to show photos of meat,” Marin added.

Yoo Bin Cha plans on showcasing Asian food on ceramic plates that she created, and Sana Liu has miniature marshmallows attached to a sculpture, but it won’t be edible.

Marin said that the food theme wasn’t planned, but just worked out that way.

She said that she proposed this ginger beer installation because she’s questioning why art always has to be pretty.

“I just wanted to create art that can be consumed by my friends,” she said.

The ginger beer recipe came from the Food Network, and calls for a lot of fresh squeezed lemons and ginger.

“I must’ve squeezed 100 lemons last night,” Marin said. “My hands feel like they’re going to fall off, but it’s worth it.”

Besides the test tasting, the visual aspect of her ginger beer installation will feature drawings on the labels attached to the empty beer bottles suspended from the ceiling, she said.

Marin said that there probably won’t be art on the labels of the 28 ginger beer bottles that will be consumed at the art opening.

“I hope that they return the bottles,” Marin said.

At school, recycling is encouraged, with containers available everywhere. In fact, ginger ale is the only soft drink that is served in the school’s cafeteria.

“Visual Art II,” the next senior art show, is free and open to the public. It will be held at 6:00 p.m. this Friday, May 7, at the Parks Exhibition Center on the Idyllwild Arts Campus. The show runs until May 14. For more information, call (951) 659-2171 or visit www.idyllwildarts.org.

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(from L) Scesney, Barron, Hensinger & Levenson at his sr. jazz recital

For jazz lovers, there’s nothing like live jazz. It’s good for the soul. CDs are fine for listening, but with live jazz, you have experience of them playing right in front of you. You see them getting “lost” in their playing, jamming with other musicians, and sweating after the show.

Last Friday, April 23, for one glorious hour, we got to hear live, Chicago-style jazz in Idyllwild. Not from some leathery old souls in a smoke-filled bar, but teenagers in a well-lit recital hall on the Idyllwild Arts campus. Some of the jazz students were even playing their own compositions.

Two high school seniors, one on drums and the other on electric guitar, wowed the intimate crowd made up of mostly classmates and faculty. If you were to close your eyes, and not look at those eager, young faces, you’d swear you were sitting in a club in Chicago.

Nate Levenson, on drums, was first. His lineup of songs included some jazz standards, like “Red Clay” by Freddie Hubbard, but another was “Dip De Do,” a never-heard-before composition by his friend, Caleb Hensinger on trumpet.

With drums, it’s kind of tricky to do a solo recital. Drums are always the backbeat of a song, never the melody. So Levenson “got a little help from his friends,” including Mint Park on electric guitar, Jacob Scesney on alto sax, Anthony Leung on tenor sax, Hallie Hudson on piano, Benny Kleinerman on piano, Caleb Hensinger on trumpet, and Alejandro Barron on bass and electric guitar.

For only being 18, Levenson had a good command of his audience. He opened with, “How are you guys doing tonight?” He dedicated his first song, “Mamacita,” to his girlfriend, Caleigh Birrell, who was seated in the audience.

Scesney and Hensinger both had solos during the recital

For his second piece, Levenson took a backseat at his own recital to showcase his friend, Caleb Hensinger.

“The next piece is called ‘Dip De Do’ by my friend, Caleb,” Levenson said. “He had too many pieces to play during his recital, and couldn’t play this one. I liked it, so I asked him to play it tonight.”

Hensinger, who is only a junior, was a showman during his own piece that was upbeat, but didn’t sound like a novice created it. On certain notes, he pointed his horn high in the air. During the “moody” parts, his horn was low.

It was a risk for Levenson to turn it over to a showman, and there he was playing the backbeat during his own recital. But it takes a big man to let someone else have the spotlight, and the audience appreciated his gesture.

And for the modest jazz drummer, it took the pressure off of him for a few moments.

The next piece was the highlight of Levenson’s portion of the show. This time, he turned it over to Jacob Scesney, on alto sax. Scesney performed a rendition of “Morning Bell.” It was first performed by Radiohead, then Chris Potter, his favorite sax player, did his own rendition of it. Then Scesney played off of Potter’s version.

“I think you can still tell what it is,” Scesney had said before the show.

From the moment he played his first note, you could tell Scesney was in love with this song. It was evident on his face, in his closed eyes, the slight smile on his face, his body language, and even the curl in his hair. Everything seemed to be wired into that song.

And the audience was paying attention. They were on the edge of their seats, loving every moment. No one spoke, and all eyes were fixed on Scesney. When it was over, the audience erupted in applause. For a long moment afterwards, Scesney was still “feeling it” in his own world. Levenson had to bring him back.

“Are you OK?” Levenson asked.

“What are we playing next?” Scesney asked, trying to snap out of his trance.

It was a moment to remember. No one would think that a rendition of a rendition could be so good. But it was, it was.

'Nate played great!' said Harold Mason, his teacher

Although he had turned the spotlight over to a trumpeter and saxman, Levenson knew what he was doing during his senior show. He would steal the spotlight, and do drum solos, that would make him smile and grab the audience’s attention.

According to Harold Mason, his teacher, who came to Idyllwild all the way from Rancho Cucamonga on that snowy night, Levenson played “just great!”

Next up on the roster was Mint Park and her electric guitar. It goes without saying that in the jazz world, there are mostly male musicians. The women were the singers, such as Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. No woman musician comes to mind.

So Park is blazing her own trail. Not to be ignored, she wore a bubblegum pink blazer. Her signature cropped hair (on one side) hung in her eyes as she warmed up. No shrinking violet, she commanded the boys when she was ready to start.

Mint Park (center) played two of her own compositions

Park’s lineup included jazz standards, “Lullaby of Bird Land” by George Shearling, and “Take Five” by Paul Desmond. Her electric guitar riffs had to fight to be heard above the other instruments, but it was clear and confident.

For her third piece, Park mixed up the order of things. She played “Chocolate,” her own composition, based on an all-school party that featured chocolate. (One never knows what serves as musical inspiration).

An added bonus was when Park took the mike and started to sing. She had a decent enough voice, but it was hard to hear above the music. Next time, she need to gain confidence and get closer to the mike.

Park’s fourth piece, “View from Moscow,” by Kurt Rosenwinkel, was met by a “Yeah!” from Marietta, Russian film student, and applause from the audience.

Yet, it was Park’s last piece that everyone will remember: “Star Gazing,” which was her own composition.

“I’m mixing up the program a little bit,” she said, half apologetically. “But they always tell you that it can happen three minutes before the tune starts.”

Then she invited the audience to “star gaze” with her, and shut off the lights. During that tune that she wrote herself, you could only see the silhouettes of the jazz players in the dark. That’s when it really sounded like masters playing in a club in Chicago.

“I was a little disoriented at first when the lights went out,” said Karin Obermeier, a literature teacher at Idyllwild Arts. She attended the jazz recital with her young son, who didn’t seem to mind.

However, later, the stories came out.

“It was cool when the lights went out, but the piano player was left in the dark,” said Simone Huls, an ESL teacher at Idyllwild Arts.

Jazz pianist Hallie Hudson hadn’t memorized Park’s music, and was relying on the sheet music in front of her. When the lights went out, she couldn’t see, and had to improvise.

The audience wasn’t the wiser.

“It’s too bad that we couldn’t see the stars when Mint turned out the lights,” said one student later. “The windows were too dirty, and there were pine trees in the way. But it was a nice idea anyway.”

For those of us who love live jazz, it was a slice of heaven.

Be sure and check the Idyllwild Arts web site for the next jazz recital. Visit www.idyllwild arts.org.

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Fion Chen as Miss Soursheen in the IM production Friday & Saturday

“What Ever Happened to Limpy Glen?” a rock fairytale presented by the Interdisciplinary Arts (IM) students at Idyllwild Arts, opened on Friday, April 30, to a sold-out crowd at the Bowman Theater. With this ambitious production, the IM students have shown that they not only can create their own sets and costumes, but also sing, act, dance and play their own music. The two-run show continues tonight, Saturday, May 1 at 7:30 p.m.

Frykdahl and Rocuant share secrets in the IM production

The show is based on “The Pied Piper of Hamelin,” a legend about the disappearance of a great many children from the German town of Hamelin. A piper, or rat catcher, was hired by the mayor to lure the rats away with his magic flute. However, when the mayor refuses to pay, the piper retaliates by luring away the children.

“Whatever Happened to Limpy Glen?” is set in Hamelin many years later. The small amount of children who are left are not allowed to play or sing music. As orphans, they’ve been turned into working droids.

Like his name implies, Limpy Glen (played by Rami Rocuant), the third-generation mayor of Hamelin, is a “wimp.” He oversees the town in his top hat and tails, receiving official notices, but isn’t really a leader or formidable force. The children do not obey because of him.

Town kids tow the line with Miss Soursheen

The real muscle is Miss Soursheen, played by Fion Chen. She is the “Cruella DaVille” that oversees the children’s chores, and reprimands them by clunking them on the head with a large chicken bone. (Actually, it looks more like a beef or ham bone because it doesn’t break).

Miss Soursheen, dressed in her Dominatrix attire, not only rules the children with a chicken bone, but the mayor too, with other knives as well. In the beginning, when she’s giving a progress report to the mayor, she’s also cooking soup for them. To emphasize her point, she points a large meat cleaver at him. Naturally, he backs away, and we know who rules. Later on in the show, Soursheen wields other weapons at the children from broomsticks to swords, and finally large spears.

IM shows Chen out of control

If they were going for dark humor, they achieved it. However, all the brutality and knife wielding was a distraction. It’s a Grimm’s Fairy Tale come to life. Let the punishment fit the crime, I say. They also didn’t explain or hint at why Miss Soursheen was so cruel. Perhaps she was tortured by a wicked witch as a lassie?

Not only does she beat her own kids, but the wild kids as well. Three wild kids, played by Caleigh Birrell, Jose Angel Diaz and Shelagh Bennett, have been wandering around the mountains for years, camping and singing songs. When they wander back into Hamelin, they don’t recognize the place at first. All the music is gone, including the record stores. There is no more fun. All the life is gone.

Bennett, Diaz and Birrell as the wild kids

Naturally, the town kids are attracted to the wild kid’s freedom, dancing and music. The town kids are played by Kumi Sweely, Luna Enriquez, Zenya Kwan, Liana Spano, Evynne Murray, Alyx Gunderson, Jahaira Anaya and Damian Hur.

As expected, three of the town kids run away to join the wild ones, including Zenya Kwan as Zelda, Luna Enriquez as Vega and Kumi Sweely as Rosa. Since they have to walk through the mountains and may encounter anything, they wield swords. To portray the denseness and confusion of the mountains, a large screen TV showed slides of large trees and video of blinding lights. Any more these days, stage plays are using video screens to help with background or scene changes.

Back in town, Mayor Wimpy Glen cannot sleep. He has several “encounters” with a vagrant, played by Nils Frykdahl, who offers him an ear, but always asks for money in the end. He’s the perfect “Beetlejuice” character with his blackened teeth, wild eyes and raspy voice. They discuss the mayor’s past, his animated turtle and finally make sense of the piper tale. (Frykdahl also doubles as bandleader, playing the electric guitar and flutes. If he is not on the IM staff yet, someone should hire him right away.)

Rocuant as mayor contemplates lifting music ban

Not only does the production’s band play all the songs, but the sound effects as well. It’s a motley crew of instruments, but fitting to the fairy tale. Led by Frykdahl, the band includes Denise Boughey, IM chair, on bass; Dawn McCarthy on electric guitar and percussion; Nate Levenson on drums; Rachel Hill on French horn; XO Liu on cello; Luna Enriquez, Caleigh BIrrell and Shelagh Bennett on guitar; Fion Chen and Liana Spano on keyboards and Rami Rocuant on banjo and guitar.

Needless to say, the production’s band is mostly made up of IM and music students. Each of the students in “Wimpy Glen” wears many hats, from playing a dramatic role, playing or singing music, building sets or illustrating the playbill.

For example, Fion Chen plays the lead as Miss Soursheen, something that would take a great deal of time. But she also helped with adapting the story, and playing keyboards in the band. Liana Spano, who plays one of the town kids, also plays keyboards, and helped to run the video throughout the show. Caleigh Birrell, who is studying painting in New York in the fall, acted, sang, danced and played guitar in the show. Luna Enriquez, who also does art, illustrated the portraits on the playbill and poster. But she also played one of the leads, sang, danced and played guitar.

Luna Enriquez played a town kid and illustrated the playbill & poster

“That is the beauty of being in the IM department,” said one of them. “We get to try many different things.”

Behind-the-scenes IM students helped out with set building, costumes, lights and sound. They included Trevor Holmes, Kaylee Greene-Spates, and Arik Dutcher. Alejandro Barron, from the jazz department, was the stage hand.

“Whatever Happened to Wimpy Glen?” continues tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Bowman Theater on campus. The show is free and open to the public. For more information, visit the Idyllwild Arts web site at www.idyllwildarts.org.

Juwan Lockett looks at "Aging Tragedy" paintings by Haley Kuhlmann

“Gleaning House,” the latest art exhibit at Idyllwild Arts Academy, showcases the work of six seniors, including Esther Chung, Dominique DeRoss, Haley Kuhlmann, Natania Frydmann, Joohee Park, Helena Walker and Miriam Grace Leigh.

“It’s a strong show,” said Rob Rutherford, head of the Visual Arts Department at Idyllwild Arts.

The show, which began on Friday night, April 23, at the Parks Exhibition Center, features a variety of media, including acrylic paintings, graphite drawings, ceramic sculptures and a large installation (wood construction).

The works that you see, said Rutherford, have changed a bit from their original proposals.

Months before, Rutherford and his staff reviewed the student’s proposals and artists statements and worked with them on their part of the show. However, two of the artists had changed their plans, including DeRoss and Frydmann.

Vance sits inside Natania's installation with prints inside

The “Gleaning House” show title is puzzling. The definition of “gleaning” is the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers’ fields after they have been commercially harvested. Some ancient cultures promoted gleaning as an early form of a welfare system. In fact, the poster for this “Gleaning House” art show featured a single russet potato. By using “gleaning” instead of “cleaning” house, perhaps the students wanted to show that they were giving or offering something, instead of throwing it away.

The first thing you notice when you walk into the gallery is Frydmann’s installation of a house, entitled “Downstairs a Mouse is in a Jar.” About the size of a doll house, it’s made up of wood (2 x 4s and plywood), fabric material (for the roof) and paper (the prints inside).

There’s room enough for a single gold armchair, and all around the walls are small hangings of prints with words on them.

“Go in and sit down,” encouraged Vance Blaettler, director of Design & Graphics at Idyllwild Arts. “It’s meant to be interactive.”

Frydmann's installation depicts a nude torso on the back

When you sit down on the chair is that there is dirt all over the floor, which is spilling out into the gallery and making quite a mess.

On the outside of the house are graphite drawings, which could be artistic doodlings. Yet, if you were to venture to the back of the house, you’d see a life-sized drawing of a female nude torse with a large nose attached. Obviously, Frydmann can draw too.

The prints on the inside tell more of a personal tale. Someone in her family had cancer, Rutherford said, and she was greatly affected by it.

“In fact, the house was not in her original proposal,” he said, “but she convinced me that it was necessary.”

The house had to be brought into the gallery in pieces, and constructed inside. When the show closes tonight, it has to be broken down again.

“Phylum Acrasiomycota,” the ceramics installation by Dominique DeRoss, also started off differently, Rutherford said.

“Originally, Dominique wanted to mount all of the ceramics onto a wooden log,” he said. “But she had to change those plans in the end.”

Dominique DeRoss' vessels

He said that it was important to her to have a natural element along with her ceramics because Idyllwild is all about nature, and she’s lived here her entire life.

The title is the name of a spore that grows on a log. That’s why the log was important. Since it didn’t work out, she wanted to put natural clay on top of the white cubes to give it an “earthy” element, but that idea got nixxed.

“Her glazes are nice,” Rutherford said.

Each of DeRoss’ vessels had a different glaze, texture and feel to them. She said the first one was hard to make, but the others were easy. She’s not sure what she’s going to do with all of them (about 25 in all) when the show closes today, April 30, (on her 18th birthday). After the summer, she plans to take a year off and move to Oregon.

Helena Walker's ceramics

Another ceramicist of note was Helena Walker and her six pieces. They also had a nature theme, and she included the scientific name along with the other titles, including encrusint coral, azure sponge, acorn barnacle sponge, brain coral and candy cane coral.

One can imagine that Walker made up the names to match the textures and colors of her strong pieces. Although they wouldn’t be mistaken for corals or sponges, the ceramics were created with much detail to the designs, and the glazes were colors that would gleam in nature.

"Milk Flower" by M. Grace Leigh

Miriam Grace Leigh, combined her ceramic pieces (under bell jars) with the framed ink and watercolor paintings on the wall. The paintings, which look organic, remind one of eastern European art, with its elongated features and political influences. In Leigh’s case, however, the titles signify more of a personal journey: Milk Flower,” for one that looks like breast barnacles, and “Screaming Grass” and “Cannibal Plant.”

Esther Chung, whose two acrylic paintings, not only show intense color and grand scale (each 90 x 117 inches), but unusual perspectives. On one of the paintings, Chung has shown her room, perhaps her limited world, from several perspectives, including a bird’s eye view.

Esther Chung's dual paintings

Haley Kuhlmann’s “Aging Tragedy,” depicts a series of portraits of a man, from infancy to old age, also caught a lot of attention from attendees.

“Look! the eyes are a different color!” remarked two people from Idyllwild. Indeed, the colors changed from purple, to brown to green, and finally blue. Those same eye colors were repeated by Kuhlmann in large blocks of color at the base of each painting.

“Wow, that’s really cool!” said Juwan Lockett, a theater major, at the aging transformation.

The teenager, looked very much like Bram Rees-Davies, a moving pictures student. However, Kuhlmann wasn’t there to confirm it.

The old age picture, however, depicted a man above age 90, thin, with large eyes. It looked a lot like Yoda, from “Star Wars.”  If Rees-Davies went from looking like he is today to looking Yoda-like, it would be a tragedy.

Joohee Park's graphite drawing

Joohee Park’s “Change,” is an organic looking oversized graphite drawing (37 x 76 inches), that takes up the entire back wall space. Like most seniors, Park is likely reviewing all the changes she has made over the years at Idyllwild Arts, and looking forward to college.

“Gleaning House” closes today, Friday, April 30, at the Parks Exhibition Center on campus. The next senior art show will be next Friday, May 7, at 6  p.m. All shows are free and open to the public. For more information, call (951) 659-2171.

Vance & Rob view the art show

Idyllwild Arts play continues through Sunday at 2 p.m.

From the moment that the Shakers come singing merrily down the aisles, until their last march out the door, “As it is in Heaven” is nonstop rollarcoaster.

This new play, written by Arlene Hutton and performed by the Idyllwild Arts Theater Department, is billed as a “drama,” but there’s so much singing, shaking and marching going on, that it could easily be considered a “musical.” It continues with a 2 p.m. show today, April 25.

The story is set in a small village of Shakers, a strict religious sect founded by Mother Ann Lee, that practices celibacy, devotion and a nonstop work ethic. In return, the women (and men who are not shown in the play) receive food and shelter.

When the show opens, the women are confessing their “sins of the day,” which include looking at men, not being thoughtful or thankful enough, taking a second helping of food, and not saying their prayers. To most of us “outsiders” these are minor infractions, not sins to be openly confessed. But for the institution-like Shaker community, it is the ties that bind them.

At first, two young newcomers appear to assimilate into their new community. Soon after, however, Fanny, played by Catherine Velarde, begins to see “visions” of angels down by the meadow, and Polly, played by Jamie Cahill, draws pictures sent by Mother Ann Lee from heaven.

Fanny and Polly are accused of lying by the elders and shunned into silence.

“Why are you drawing trees, Sister Polly?” Betsy (Jessie Scales) asks. “We don’t need trees on seed packets. A simple drawing of a fruit or vegetable will do.”

“But I have a gift!” Polly insists.

Her later drawings bring comfort to older Shakers who were struggling with the changes brought on by the newcomers. Fanny’s “angel sightings” soon become impossible to ignore, and the Shakers grapple with the uncertainty.

Like the name implies, a Shaker’s immediate response is to “shake” away their fear, guilt and confusion, or stomp their feet and “trample” it. All this shaking, marching, stomping and singing occurs throughout the play, and keeps the audience on edge. Like a windup toy that never stops.

Izzy, played by Christine Wood, a girl from a broken family who grew up as a Shaker, pretends to see the same visions as Fanny, so she can befriend her. However, one day by the meadow where they were seeing angels, some town boys throw stones at Izzy and Polly, calling them “heretics.”

The image of Izzy recounting her story to the others is hard to forget. Lit with a warm light all around her, she is being propped up by the others who are comforting her. Izzy looked more like a deposed Christ, than a young girl who had just been pelted with stones. One cannot help but think of Mary Magdeline and the angry townsfolk who attempted to stone her.

Other Bible-type images are found throughout the play, such as Hannah’s “washing” of Fanny’s feet before she leaves on a long journey. It’s a scene that lasted only a few moments, yet was so intense, you could hear a pin drop.

In another instance, Hannah confronts Fanny about her “visions,” saying that Mother Ann would never appear to her, a lowly prostitute, but rather to one of the elders, who knew her on earth. This is a direct contrast to their Christian belief that God and Jesus,  a lowly carpenter’s son, are one.

Although the speech and staging is simple, this Shaker play covers such difficult subjects as prostitution and incest.

“I liked the fact that they did it subtlely,” said Kim Henderson, Chair of the Creative Writing Department at Idyllwild Arts. “Otherwise, subjects like that can easily take over an entire play.”

Fanny, as her name implies, was considered a “fallen woman” before she arrived in the Shaker community. She became a prostitute out of financial desparation, and was shunned by everyone, except the Shakers. However, she is the only one who sees Izzy’s situation clearly. As Izzy was being taken away by her father, Fanny shouts to her: “If he does anything wrong to you, Izzy, run away! Run away!”

Only poverty, depression and infant mortality is overtly discussed by Jane, a grieving mother, played by Nina Brett.

“Six babies I bore, and six babies died. All that pain for nothing,” Jane wails. “No, I don’t miss marriage at all. You young girls think it’s all pretty words and bouquets of flowers. But then your sick children are going to die.”

When Izzy interrupts her, saying that the mother cat wouldn’t clean her newborn runt, Jane quips: “Cats are smarter than people. They know when to give up on a sickly child.”

Ari Howell, as Hannah, the “Mother Superior” Shaker, tries unsuccessfully to “run roughshod” over Fanny and Polly with angry outbursts, shame and fear. (All the characteristics not becoming of a humble Shaker).  Soon, however, as Fanny gains power, Hannah, tries more desperate measures. She instructs the men to bulldoze the meadow, thereby removing the angels from Fanny’s view, and then orchestrates a fake angel-viewing ceremony of her own. It is inevitable, yet painful to watch Hannah’s downhill slide.

The acapella singing of the Shakers starts out clear and angelic, but becomes strained, and then outright angry by the end of the play. The voice of Peggy, played by Brooke Hebert, comes straight from the heavens, yet becomes heavy with emotion as she confronts the changes.

Coral Miro Cohen, who plays Rachel, adds humor to the simple songs.

“If we’re going to add harmony to our songs, we might as well be Methodist,” she quips.

On the other hand, songs by Phebe (played by Becca Goldberg) become increasingly angrier as she unsuccessfully confronts Hannah, and finds comfort and solace in everyday Shaker songs. In the end, there is only bitterness left in Phebe’s voice, as she spits out the lyrics. Quite possibly, Phebe is the only Shaker who becomes a true believer.

“As it is in Heaven” is a must-see for anyone who has ever practiced organized religion or believes in the power of angels. For more information, call Idyllwild Arts at (951) 659-2171, or visit “Center Stage” at www.idyllwildarts.org.

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